Favorite Things Friday- NO!

This CD is our family favorite! The first time my husband and I listened to it we rolled our eyes at the ridiculousness of the song lyrics, but there is no way we could have predicted how much the catchy little songs would grow on us. It is the CD I most enjoy playing with the kids in the car. It is so much fun to watch them sing and dance along to it. This is an album that is not annoying to parents like many others are, even when the kids ask for the songs to be repeated we are able to happily oblige.

Give it a try, you can't go wrong with They Might Be Giants! Adding No! to your collection will provide entertainment and enjoyment for all ages.

Just a bit of warning, these songs are so catchy that you might find yourself singing them at all hours of the day, whether the kids are around or not. I have found myself many times softly singing, "Don't cross the street in the middle, in the middle," and "Here on Fibber Island, we strum rubber guitars, our friends live on Mars, we sew buttons on our cars ". Fun Stuff!

Chicken and Rice

I realize there is nothing innovative or original about chicken and rice, but it is a crowd pleaser, it is easy and it is a one dish meal. It is a go-to meal for those nights when mom doesn't really feel like cooking and when I don't want to have to convince anyone to eat heartily.

So, even though there are a million versions of this dish available in nearly every cookbook, I thought I'd share with you how I make it. It is delicious and I think I make it the cheapest and easiest way possible.

Chicken and Rice
2 chicken breasts cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 tbs Lawry's Season Salt
3 cups uncooked white long grain rice
5 cups water
1 can cream of chicken soup
1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Heat olive oil in a large skillet that has a lid. Add chicken and season salt to oil and cook over medium heat until chicken is thoroughly cooked and brown on the outsides. Stir in rice, water and soup. Bring to boil. Cover and allow to cook over low heat for 20 minutes completely undisturbed. At the end of the 20 minutes turn the burner off and top with cheese, recover and allow to sit an additional 3-5 minutes. Serve immediately.

This meal is easy and delicious, just what a busy mom needs!

Free Office Software

How about saving $280? Doesn't that sound wonderful?

My husband works IT for a Major Company and he told me about this little doosey. If you have need for spreadsheets, word processing or creating slide shows on your computer this is a most excellent choice. There is no longer any need to fork out $280 for the Microsoft Office Suite, when Open Office provides fantastic software for FREE!

Advantages of OpenOffice as listed on their website:
-OpenOffice.org 3 is the result of over twenty years' software engineering. Designed from the start as a single piece of software, it has a consistency other products cannot match. A completely open development process means that anyone can report bugs, request new features, or enhance the software. The result: OpenOffice.org 3 does everything you want your office software to do, the way you want it to.

- OpenOffice.org 3 is easy to learn, and if you're already using another office software package, you'll take to OpenOffice.org 3 straight away. Our world-wide native-language community means that OpenOffice.org 3 is probably available and supported in your own language. And if you already have files from another office package - OpenOffice.org 3 will probably read them with no difficulty.

- Best of all, OpenOffice.org 3 can be downloaded and used entirely free of any licence fees. OpenOffice.org 3 is released under the LGPL licence. This means you may use it for any purpose - domestic, commercial, educational, public administration. You may install it on as many computers as you like. You may make copies and give them away to family, friends, students, employees - anyone you like.

Impressive!  OpenOffice is so adequate that my husbands company (The General... if you catch my drift) has seriously considered switching all of their machines to the OpenOffice Suite. If it's good enough for them, well then I think it'll fit your needs.


To Download the OpenOffice Suite visit http://www.openoffice.org/.

Homemade Trail Mix

I make ginormous amounts of homemade trail mix for about $15 and it is so easy!

The trick to making enormous quantities of trail mix for a relatively low price is shopping at Trader Joe's. They have the cheapest bags of nuts and dried fruits with the best selection. I like to go into the store and buy what strikes my fancy. Most often the cheapest and yummiest sounding items for me are the roasted peanuts, honey roasted peanuts (give the mix some sweetness), cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds and raisins.

I bring them home and mix them all up in my biggest mixing bowl. After they are all well mixed I store the mix in large ziploc bags. It costs less than $15 and is enough to fill two large bags.

This is the cheapest and easiest way I've found to make trail mix. I love that I control exactly what goes into my mix and I can keep it healthier.

We All Scream For Birthdays

It's another birthday party theme! This time it was all about ice cream. The request was simple, "I want an ice cream birthday." My husband and I came up with this decor that put ice cream all over the room and had the distinct feel of an ice cream parlor.

We made giant ice cream cones using recycled brown paper bags that were shaped into a cone shape and taped an inflated pink balloon into the top. We also made small cones to stick on the walls. For the small cones we used a poke-a-dot brown wrapping paper from the dollar store and round wall decals for the ice cream portion.

Table decorations were simple, I bought a couple of sundae glasses at the dollar store and filled them with Baskin Robins ice cream flavored hard candies.

And last but not least, I made ice cream cone cup cakes. These were so easy to make. I have seen several variations, but I chose to make them by filling a standard muffin tin with my cake batter and then gently putting the cones on the top and cooking as normal. The rising batter filled the cones so that they stuck on well and then when inverted the cupcakes in the cones made a nice round shape.

Simple and fun, just the way we like birthday parties!

Favorite Things Friday- Memory Foam Mattress

This is not a picture of me!

I love our mattress, I love our mattress, I love our mattress! Oh, and in case you missed my point there... I LOVE our mattress! 

Two years ago, at our whits end with our traditional mattress, we decided it was time to purchase a new one. We went to several furniture stores and laid on all of their beds. After our trials I knew without a doubt that I wanted a memory foam. The instant I laid on them my back felt so relaxed. So we started the process of narrowing our search down to get the best memory foam for the least amount of money. That is when my husband tracked down the most fantastic deal on Overstock.com. Their deal was at least half as expensive as anything else we could find. At first we were a bit hesitant about the quality, but with a 5 star customer rating and incredible reviews we thought we'd give it a try.

Hands down, the 8-inch Cool Sensations Memory Foam Mattress from Overstock.com is the best mattress I have ever slept on! Two years later, I am still as happy with it as the first day it arrived. The quality is great, the deal is great and I sleep better than great. The best part of memory foam is that I cannot feel the movements of my husband in bed next to me... you know those old commercials with a wine glass sitting on a mattress and they drop the bowling ball and the wine doesn't spill, well that is exactly what you could do with this mattress. 

If you are needing a new mattress, you will not find a better one for under $300. I can't imagine a better night sleep!

Peanut Butter Cups

Here is another recipe from my wonderful college roommate. These easy and delicious peanut butter cups have gotten me through some sickly pregnancies. When my body rejected every other food in the world, these were always delicious. They are a great inexpensive, quick and easy alternative to purchasing peanut butter cups. I think these taste better too!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cup Recipe
1 cup peanut butter
1 stick butter
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1-2 cups chocolate chips

Mix peanut butter and stick of butter in a microwavable bowl and heat until melted and liquidy. Stir in powdered sugar until mixture starts to thicken and takes on a paste like texture. Spread evenly in 13x9 baking dish. Cover top with single layer of chocolate chips. Heat in low temperature oven just until chocolate melts. Spread chocolate with a knife to form an even layer. Allow to cool completely and enjoy the deliciousness.